USA > Illinois > St Clair County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume II > Part 13
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of bottom lands and bluffs; and the two kinds of land are visibly divided from each other by a line passing through Caseyville from north- east to southwest. In early days the bottom lands here were flooded most of the year; but in the latter half of the nineteenth century they were drained so as to be capable of agri- culture. The bluffs near Caseyville are rugged, of sand and gravel, and heavily covered with timber. From the nature of the soil, therefore, we can easily find the causes for the compara- tively recent date of Caseyville's settlement.
We find a number of land entries of 1814 re- corded as follows: In T. 2 N., R. 8 W .- Joseph Cornelius, September 28; John Swigart, Au- gust 31; heirs of J. R. Simpson, December 22; Joseph Baird, December 2; Robert Marlott, Sep- tember 29; and in R. 9 W., heirs of Solomon Brown, September 28.
In 1826, George Moffett, a wealthy man from Delaware, settled near the Madison County line and bought considerable land in the neighbor- hood. He left a number of descendants. In 1826, Marcus Pelham, from South Carolina, set- tled at the edge of the bluff near the present site of Caseyville, where he and several mem- bers of his family are buried. Along with the Pelhams, came Simon Kingston, from South Carolina, and settled south of them. He had a son Simon, who lived in Madison County. Kingston and his wife were buried in the bluffs. Early in the 'thirties, a Mr. Decker set- tled on the bluff east of Caseyville, but eventu- ally went to California. Near Decker lived, for a time, a Mr. McClanahan, who later left for Minnesota. About 1834, an Irishman named Kennedy settled in the neighborhood, and left some descendants. Early in the his- tory of Caseyville, Levi Nichols took up his home there; and in 1838, Dominique Morback, from France, located on Section 15, of R. 9 W., where, in 1837, Joseph Delorme was born.
Coal mining early became the leading indus- try of this precinct. Up to 1880, there were three mines on the Vandalia line. In 1868, Maule & Williams sank the Abby shaft No. 1, which was 160 feet deep with a vein averaging six feet in thickness. In 1873, Abby shaft No. 2, with a depth and vein equal to the foregoing, was sunk by the Abby Coal Com- pany, who employed about 160 men and boys. In 1874, the Springville mine, east of the others,
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
was sunk by the Bartlett Company. In an- other chapter appears much of interest con- cerning coal mining here.
CENTERVILLE PRECINCT occupied all of T. 1 S., R. 9 W., a triangular fraction of T. 1 S., R. 10 W., the southwest quarter of T. 1 N., R. 9 W., and a part of T. 1 N., R 10 W. Like most of St. Clair County, it consists of good agri- cultural land, especially adapted to wheat rais- ing. The west fork of Richland Creek rises here, in Sections 23 and 24, south of Millstadt. Water courses, rich timber strips, and fine nat- ural groves abound here. Centerville Precinct contained 33,120 acres.
The region abounds in excellent coal. In 1830, Joshua Hughes, a blacksmith, mined the first coal, which was of superior quality, from a hill-side southeast of Centerville. In 1835, William Larkin opened the first quarries, in which excellent stone-both lime and sand-is quarried. Sections 31 and 32 of T. 1 N., R. 9 W., furnish especially valuable stone for build- ing purposes.
In early days rumor declared that silver was to be found in this precinct and that two Mex- icans had built a cabin in the wilderness here, where they had reduced silver ore. Later a tanner from Monroe County was said to know the location of the mine. He was said from time to time to carry out sacks of silver ore, which he sold in St. Louis. Although people have eagerly searched for silver mines here, so far no one nas found any.
June 5, 1839, this precinct was formed by order of the court. The first election was held at the house of Lewis Pulse, with Isaac S. Reed, Robert Gooding, and Philip Creamer as judges of the election. The first land entries were made by Thomas Harrison, Absalom Bradshaw, Daniel Whiteside, James Johnson, Martin Ran- delman and Matthew Langford in 1814; Wil- liam Morrison and Sinil Lacy in 1815; Corne- lius Gooding in 1816; and Samuel Hill in 1817.
Samuel Judy, and died in 1809. He was the first settler. William Lunceford, his son, was the first child born in this precinct. This lo- cality was in early days a paradise for hunt- ers, as the breaks in the bluffs which rose from the Mississippi bottoms encouraged panthers, wild cats, wolves, and bears to make their home there; and on the rich prairies were many herds of deer.
According to old settlers, there was a de- serted house on the bluffs two miles south of Falling Springs; but no one knows when or by whom the building was occupied. Certainly it was occupied by very early settlers, per- haps by Short, Griffen, Gibbons, Roberts and Valentine, who tried to make a settlement here in 1796, but soon afterwards abandoned it. A graveyard south-west in Monroe County marks the location.
The northeastern part of the precinct was settled by people from Hardy County and Ha- gerstown, Md., in 1800. Details of this immi- gration are given in the accounts of settlements by the Stookeys, Eymans, Millers, Randelmans and others. Randelman and Teter settled in this district.
Others who settled here in early days were Charles Jones, John Mauzy and Matthew Roach in 1815; Cornelius Gooding, James Glass and Robert Gooding in 1816; the Laceys, John Primm of Cahokia, at an earlier date, and Goodner, the Baileys, John Little and Simon Stookey in 1822. John Little chose a claim on Section 4, marked it by planting on it a small cedar tree, and went back to his old home to bring his family. In early days the settlers had often to flee to Whiteside's Sta- tion for protection from Indian attacks. .
According to Governor Reynolds' account, "In 1803, John Primm emigrated from Vir- ginia and settled first in the New Design, then settled at the foot of the Mississippi bluff south- east of Cahokia; then, several years later, moved to a plantation several miles southwest of Belleville, where lie died in 1836. Mr. Primm was born in Stafford County, Va., and served in the Revolutionary War, assisting in the capture of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781. He had four daughters and thirteen sons."
Before the Government had made surveys, claims had been made and confirmed to George Lunceford, Thomas Marrs, Mrs. Jacob Groot, widow-all in payment for military service ren- In 1788, on the old trail from Bellefontaine to Cahokia, at the point where the trail begins to descend into the valley, William Biggs was dered in 1790. Lunceford, who had aided Colo- nel Clark in the conquest of Illinois, settled near Kaskaskia, began farming in 1796 with, captured by the Indians. A full account of his
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
adventures is given elsewhere. He was taken to an Indian town on the Wabash River, trav- eling 300 miles in ten days. He was ran- somed and descended the Wabash and the Ohio to the Mississippi, thence went up that river to Kaskaskia, and on home to Bellefontaine. He was appointed by Governor St. Clair, Sheriff of St. Clair County, which office he held many years. He was a member of the first Terri- torial Legislature and was an honored and use- ful citizen.
In this locality, in 1813, Thomas Harrison built the first cotton-gin ever established in Illinois. More than eighty-five years ago Frank Roach built the first mill, a primitive corn mill, on Section 12 of T. 1 S., R. 9 W., and later Samuel and Matthew Roach built a mill on Forbes' Fork, which was soon washed away. Frank Roach lived to be 106 years old. When 102 years old, he challenged William Clintock, of Belleville, to a wrestling match.
The primitive cemetery was near the Union meeting house. The latter, built in 1816, on Section 11, T. 1 S., R. 9 W., about two miles northeast of Millstadt, was the first house of worship. The first person buried there was John Ross, on October 1, 1823; the second, Thomas Jarrot, October 16, 1823. The first school was taught in the old Union meeting house in 1824 by a Mr. Gallop.
The first physician who practiced here was the historic Doctor Goforth, who lived in Co- lumbia, Cahokia, and finally in Belleville, where he was killed by a horse, as elsewhere related.
Some of the earliest marriages recorded were those of Isaac Gooding and Polly Cox, March 28, 1820, and Nathan Cox and Elizabeth Good- ing, September 13, 1826, by Cornelius Gooding, Justice of the Peace.
The first blacksmith and coal operator was Joshua Hughes, who owned a smithy in 1829 and took coal from a hillside half a mile south- east of Centerville in 1830. This coal bank was later transferred to Benjamin Goodner, and finally abandoned. In 1842, Andrew Pfeiffer opened a coal mine on Section 25, T. 1 S., R 9 W., entered by means of a "drift" in the hill- side. The vein of coal is six and one-half feet thick, and of a very fine quality. This mine was later owned by George Grossman. In 1880 Teuerhahn, Muskopf & Co. operated a coal- shaft about fifty feet deep, with a vein six
or seven feet thick, within the corporate lim- its of Millstadt. Mines of the present time in St. Clair County are elsewhere referred to.
In early days Daniel Eastwood was elected Justice of the Peace in opposition to Simon Stookey.
In 1825, a paper dollar passed current for twenty-five cents. Cut in two, each half would pass for twelve and one-half cents-"a bit,"- which was popular as change. Jacob Randle- man brought the first clock to the settlement, an old wooden one, about six feet high.
The first German settlers here were Daniel Wagner and Theobald and Jacob Miller, who crossed the ocean together in 1834, landing at New Orleans and coming thence to St. Louis. Then they came to Centerville, where they bought land the same year, and formed the nucleus of a settlement that grew to be a flour- ishing one, almost exclusively German. They were men of industry and energy, who made the most ,of their opportunities, improving both themselves and their land.
According to the census of 1880, the precinct had a population of 2,471 inhabitants, of which 90 per cent. were Germans. It included the present Townships of Millstadt and Sugar Loaf. It was bounded on the north by Cahokia and Belleville Precincts, on the east by Belleville and Richland Precincts, on the south by Rich- land Precinct, and on the west by Prairie du Pont Precinct and Monroe County.
EAST ST. LOUIS PRECINCT included East St. Louis, most of Stites and part of Centerville Station Townships. It was bounded on the north by Madison County, on the east by Casey- ville and French Village Precincts, on the south by Cahokia Precinct and on the west by the Mississippi River. Its history is largely identi- cal with that of the city of East St. Louis, which is treated of in another chapter.
FRENCH VILLAGE PRECINCT .- This precinct oc- cupied the twelve southeastern sections of T. 2 N., R. 9 W., and included a part of the pres- ent Centerville Station Township. It was bound- ed on the north by East St. Louis and Caseyville Precincts, east by O'Fallon Precinct, south by
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
Belleville and Cahokia Precincts and west by Cahokia and East St. Louis Precincts. Its set- tlement was begun about 1800 by people from Cahokia, and the first settlement was known as Little French Village. In 1827 it had only fifteen or twenty families, all French. About one-fifth of the area of the precinct was in the bluff and a considerable part of it was bottom land, included in ponds and lakes. In favorable seasons this land yields excellent corn crops. During seasons of high water it is well supplied with fish. In 'early days, wild swans, ducks and geese were numerous there, The drainage in this locality, as in all portions of the American Bottom, has always been a difficult problem. About 1870 an attempt was made to drain this precinct by cutting a large ditch through from Spring Creek to Big Lake, and thence into Prairie du Pont Creek. This ditch failed to accomplish its purpose owing to the comparative levelness of the land. Schoenberger Creek winds around for several miles in the bluff, but, as the people say, "it is so contrary unat it runs up stream instead of down."
In 1789, Lawrence Schoenberger came to this country. Later he came to this district, and in 1814 entered his first land claim here, finally becoming the largest landowner in this part of the county. Lawrence Pensoneau settled here about the same time. He married Odele Calliot, and had a large family. His son Ste- phen, who lived near the old homestead, mar- ried twice: first, Adeline Belange, by whom he had two children; then, after her death, which occurred in 1848, Barbara Eckmann, by whom he had six children. Other settlers were: August Trotier, Nicholas Tourjeant, Joseph Boneau, Baptiste Chartrand, Laurence Gunville, Louis Roulard, Peter Garah, Baptiste Graundine, Baptiste Gainard, Jerry Sullivan, Joseph Lepage and Joseph Valentine. These men came about 1800. Lambert Boneau, Aman- ial Trotier and Deno Pellitier were early Jus- tices of the Peace.
In 1820 the first mill was built by John De- rosch and owned by Joseph Boneau. This was a two-story frame building on the old Vin- cennes State Road (now Rock Road), and the machinery was propelled by oxen on the prin- ciple of the tread-mill. This mill has long been out of existence. The first blooded stock
in this part of the country was brought here in 1832 by Mr. Boneau.
In 1838 Glode C. Belange built a frame store on the Rock Road near the mill. In 1838 Jo- seph Boneau established the first blacksmith shop on the Rock Road in a log house fourteen by fourteen feet. In 1849 the first postoffice, called French Village, was established on Rock Road, with John Penn as postmaster. Glode Belange kept the first hotel in connection with his store.
In 1842 the Catholic inhabitants, guided by Rev. Peter Deturlin, erected the first church, a frame building on Section 26, and laid out a cemetery just east of it. In 1829 the first school-house was built, in Section 25 on the old Vincennes Road, and school was opened there with John Robinson as first teacher. In 1869 a large $2,500 school-house was built near the Catholic church.
In earliest days, Joseph Boneau owned and operated a mine half a mile south of French Village. In 1880 there were two coal mines in operation. Modern coal operations in the county are referred to in another chapter.
The happy temperament characteristic of the French made it possible for these pioneers to bear their many hardships and privations un- complainingly. They manufactured all of the clothes they wore. The women wore home- made dresses colored with sumac bark, and simply a blue handkerchief for a bonnet. (See chapter on "Settlements.")
Before French Village had a church, the peo- ple attended religious meetings at Cahokia. They went back and forth in French carts, constructed entirely of wood, with wooden wheels, made of cylindrical sections of a large tree without tires. The beds of such vehicles were frames resting on the axles and the poles, and they were surrounded by six ver- tical stakes connected with each other by bas- ket work of hazel brush or willows. The axle, where it entered the wheels, was six inches in diameter and the hub (which constituted the wheel) was about six feet in circumference. The carts of the well-to-do were drawn by horses, and those of the poor by oxen. The axle-grease that the settlers used was "soft soap and plenty of it."
Early land entries were made by Ferguson and Trotier, September 27; Gabriel Marlot, Sep-
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
tember 29; John Hendricks, October 1; J. L. Schoenberger, December 23, and Louis Jarvis, December 24, all in 1814.
PRAIRIE DU PONT PRECINCT .- Up to 1871, Prai- rie du Pont was a part of Cahokia, but in that year it was made a separate precinct, embracing about 15,000 acres. It was bounded on the east by Cahokia and Centerville Precincts, on the south by Monroe County and Centerville Precinct, on the west by the Mississippi River. It was the extreme western point of St. Clair County, wholly situated in the Bottom, and extending from the river to the bluff. Like all the American Bottom, the land included in it is very fertile. It is drained by Prairie du Pont Creek and by the "big ditch." The name, Prairie du Pont, was taken from the ancient village in the precinct. The East St. Louis, or Conlogue Railway, and the narrow- gauge road were built through this district- the Conlogue extending a branch across coun- try to the quarries at Falling Springs.
The general history, customs and the like of Prairie du Pont were similar to those of Cahokia. Like Cahokia, Prairie du Pont had commons, common fields and the arpents.
Wheat has always been the staple product of the lands in this precinct. The pioneer wa- ter-mill in this vicinity was built on the creek near the village of Prairie du Pont, in 1754-55, by the Mission of St. Sulpice and the village grew up around it. The first school-house was erected in 1861, costing $500, and the first teacher was William Williamson. J. B. Vien was the first Justice of the Peace.
Falling Springs, at the bluif, a mile south- east of the village of Prairie du Pont, is so named from the fact that a spring gushes out of a perpendicular rock of solid limestone with a fall of sixty or seventy feet. The bluff here is about 130 feet high. The spring flows from an orifice midway between the top of the bluff and the rocky bottom beneath. In early days, a water power grist-mill was built at this point, but all traces of it have vanished. Years ago, a hotel was built near the spring and used as a summer resort by the people of neighbor- ing towns and cities, but soon was changed into a saloon.
Three stone-quarries were worked near the
spring-one by Otto & Parent, one by William Richards, and the third by Henry Deering- employing in all about seventy-five men, and loading on an average twenty cars a day. The companies had a branch of the Conlogue Rail- way run to the quarries. In 1881 a dump was erected here by the Vandalia Railroad Com- pany costing about $50,000. Stolle's Quarry at Falling Springs now does a good business and serves as the terminus of the Belleville & Ca- rondelet railroad, which is now a part of the Illinois Central System. This quarry employs several hundred men and produces excellent limestone, which, when crushed by a steam crusher, furnishes good material for railroad ballast.
RICHLAND PRECINCT, which formerly included what are now Prairie du Long, a goodly part of Smithton and the southern part of Millstadt Townships, was in the south-central part of the county. It was of rectangular shape with a triangle attached on the west, and contained about 48,280 acres. The land was drained by Richland and Prairie du Long Creeks. Most of the land is low and level, and requires ar- tificial drainage to make it tillable. The ter- ritory of this precinct, populated chiefly by German farmers, was bounded north by Belle- ville Precinct, east by Fayetteville Precinct, south by the county line and west by Monroe County and Centerville Precinct.
The earliest settlements made in Richland Precinct were in the northwestern part, near Turkey Hill. In 1802, the first cabin was built by Joseph Carr, a Revolutionary soldier, who came with his family from Virginia to find a home in the West. They came by raft down' the Ohio to Fort Massac, and made their way thence to Kaskaskia, following an old trail on foot and on horseback to the point where Carr decided to "pitch his tent" permanently. With Mr. Carr came his daughters and his sons, Conrad, Abner, Jacob and Henry-strong, hardy pioneers, ready to brave the hardships of pio- neer life. His daughter Phoebe married Dorsey Wilderman in 1812. Mr. Carr brought a set of blacksmith's tools with him, a welcome ac- quisition in the primitive neighborhood. Ac- cording to an old pioneer, "Mr. Carr was as good a man as ever lived, although he had a disregard for religious services, for he had a
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
way of going hunting along the Okaw on Sat- urday and Sunday, whenever his son-in-law, James Garrison, from Monroe County, held services at his house."
In 1803, David Phillips settled near by, with his family of six sons and five daughters. Soon after their arrival, two of the daughters were married to the brothers Conrad and Abner Carr. Later, two others married Henry and Crisley Stout. David Phillips was born in North Carolina in 1755, and served in the Rev- olutionary War. After the Revolution he went west to Tennessee, from there to Kentucky, and finally came to Illinois, where he made his home, lived and died.
In 1803, there came also Jacob Short from Kentucky and settled a little to the south of the Phillips family. He was six feet tall, heavily built, athletic and energetic. He was a member of the first legislative body in Illi- nois, which convened at Kaskaskia, November 25, 1812.
In 1808, David Hill, an orphan, came from Pennsylvania to Richland Precinct. He was a soldier of the War of 1812, and in 1815 mar- ried Isabella Bennet, from Kentucky. In 1880, he was the oldest surviving settler in his vi- cinity and one of the very few remaining pen- sioners of the War of 1812.
In order that the children of the settlement might have school advantages, a school was organized, and was taught by John Bradsby on Turkey Hill in 1808. After a time this was discontinued, and there was no other school there until 1824.
In the meantime, other men were coming to join the settlement. Among these were the families of Higgins in 1818, Smith in 1819, and Lamb in 1818. Timothy Higgins settled west of the others on Prairie du Long Prairie, near what was afterwards the site of Georgetown. Higgins and Smith were from "daown in Maine." Samuel Smith was a Baptist minis- ter and a blacksmith, and-as the pioneers said -"worked at blacksmithing for a living, and preached for a good conscience." The latter employment was far from lucrative in those days. It is said that, on one occasion, a newly married man offered to pay for his services in coon skins, to be the result of a prospective hunting trip.
In 1824, William McClintock, commonly known as "Uncle Billy," began to teach school
in the precinct. However, as Mr. McClintock refused to treat to whisky, "like they did where the Higginses used to live, 'daown in Maine,' ' the aforesaid "Higginses" raised a disturbance, which resulted in Mr. McClintock's giving up the work and the breaking up of the school.
The first children born in this settlement were double cousins, both Sarah Carrs. Sarah Carr (Miller) was born in 1803, and the other Sarah Carr the following year. As early as 1806, Joseph Chance, a Baptist minister, preached in the community, holding services at the houses of different settlers. Kickapoo Indians came to the pioneers from time to time as friends, but sometimes showed a hostile spirit.
South of the settlement mentioned, in T. 2 S., R. 8 W., in what is now Prairie du Long Township, there lived in 1814 Thomas Tal- bot, who married Hetty Scott, and had a son, William S. Talbot, born June 19, 1815. Hillery S. Talbot also lived there in 1816.
At this time there were two saw-mills in operation in these parts, one owned by James M. Davidson, on Prairie du Long Creek, and the other by Moses Quick, on Richland Creek. However, neither of these mills was operated for a very long time. Moses Quick left his and took to dealing in stock. He and his brother Aaron were the first to settle in their imme- diate locality, which was not far from White- side Station.
In September, 1815, a road was opened from Belleville to Quick's mill; and, in February, 1816, one from Belleville by way of David- son's mill to the county line was "viewed" and ordered constructed by Moses Quick, Joseph Carr, and James M. Davidson. With the open roadway came in the use of wagons and carts with creaking solid wooden wheels innocent of iron.
The early settlers early in the last century took to building brick chimneys instead of such stick-and-mud chimneys as had been in use. This was rendered possible by the opening of a brick-yard in this vicinity by the Carrs, Hig- ginses and some others in 1820. Not until 1830, or thereabouts, however, was brick burned for house-building. Ben Smith, west of George- town, on land of Thouvernot, was the first to engage in such an enterprise.
In 1833, Thomas Higgins built, on the west fork of Richland Creek, a saw-mill with an upright saw run by water-power. The first
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Nicholas Boul
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
circular saw was used in a mill on Forcade's field in 1850. In connection with this, we have the record of the first death-that of John Smith, who fell dead while carrying this saw on a hot summer day. In 1833, a water-mill for grinding corn was built in T. 1 S., R. 9 W., by Billings and Taylor.
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